Bangladesh to hand over ULFA leader to India

Dhaka, Aug 3 (IANS) Bangladesh is in the process of handing over detained United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leader Anup Chetia to India, a minister said here Wednesday.

“We have already initiated the legal process to hand him over to India,” the Daily Star quoted Home Minister Sahara Khatun as saying here.

ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia was arrested in Bangladesh in 1997 and is under detention on completion of his jail term.

ULFA is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland in India’s Assam state since 1979. The insurgency claimed some 10,000 lives in the past two decades.

Bangladesh’s move to hand over Chetia to India comes following the visit to Dhaka by Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram, during which the Indian authorities gave a list of 50 Indians who are now allegedly hiding or are under detention in Bangladesh. India asked that they be handed over to it.

Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder said that Anup Chetia was on the top of the Indian list.

On its part, Bangladesh has given to India a list of 100 people whom it wants back.

“We do not have any extradition treaty with India. We are now working on finding ways to send them back under other ways since we are members of the same inter-governmental organisation - the Commonwealth,” said the home secretary.